1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved card handling device for magnetic cards with one or more magnetic strips as well as integrated circuit bearing smart cards, hereinafter referred to as an integrated circuit card, or IC card, and a card recycling device. The present invention handles IC cards of either contact or non-contact access technologies.
2. Description of Related Art
A card handling device for magnetic cards and integrated circuit bearing cards is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open patent application No. 10-49725 and includes a card slot, magnetic card handling device, an IC card handling device, and a card storing device for both magnetic and IC cards. The guide of the magnetic card handling device pivots about an axis to allow the magnetic card to be drawn by gravity into a recycling unit.
In the prior art, a magnetic card handling device pivots a predetermined angle on the rotating shaft used as a drive in the card transporting device. The prior art discloses a compact structure, including both the card handling device and the card recycling device in one body.
However, this structure is complex making assembly and maintenance difficult because the rotating shaft for the transporting device is shared as the pivot axis of the magnetic handling device. The magnetic card occurs in two varieties denoted JIS-1 type (JIS-X-6302-1) and JIS-2 type (JIS-6302-2). The JIS-1 type has a magnetic strip on the reverse side of the card, while the JIS-2 type has a magnetic strip on the obverse side, or front face, of the card.
The magnetic heads for reading and writing are located facing the magnetic strips and may physically contact the magnetic strips. The magnetic heads are moveable in operation. The magnetic heads are located opposite from each other, grasping the card between the heads, and providing support for the grasped card to keep it from dropping.
If one of the heads moves, the card is released. If the magnetic heads touch each other without an intervening card present, the magnetic heads may be damaged. Some card handling devices are small in size allowing their use, for example, in ticket vending machines.